NSW Rugby League Carnival

2017 Report

This year the event was hosted by the Redfern All Blacks at Leichhardt Oval in Sydney’s inner west over and HoHA volunteers treated over 300 people. This is an important Indigenous gathering with over 110 teams playing over a four-day period. Teams come from as far away as Moree, Griffith, Wardell on the North Coast, and Newcastle. The weekend encompasses junior, women’s and men’s rugby league, with games initially 30 minutes each and grand finals which run as a full 40 minutes game. As each team progresses they can play up to 3 games each, a major test of endurance.

A major aspect of the weekend is always being able to offer the broader community with chiropractic care as many regional and particularly remote communities have little chance to avail themselves of this type of treatment. This year, one young player reminded us that the students had helped him the previous year with a hamstring injury and that if it had not been for our team he would not have been able to play. Stories such as these are the reason why we do this event and continue to volunteer within the community.

Through events such as this, HoHA provides unique and meaningful student placements both nationally and internationally in our clinics and with our partner universities. With a focus on ensuring today’s students have the best possible social, cultural and clinical exposure our programmes provide the foundations for successful, compassionate and leading practitioners of the future.

Special thanks go to CAA, NSW for sponsoring the t-shirts for the event and to members and volunteers Joan van Rotterdam, Inger Villadsen, Kara Hayes, Farouk Badawi and John Kyneur. Click here for more information about donating or becoming a member of our organisation please or email us at admin@hoha.org.au for volunteer enquiries.

2015 Report by Joan van Rotterdam

The NSW Rugby League Carnival – known as the “Knockout” was held over the 1st weekend in October, 2015 in Dubbo with the Walgett team as hosts. This year’s event attracted a crowd of over 15,000 people from all over the state of NSW, watching a combination of junior, women’s and men’s rugby league events.

Hands-On-Health Australia supervised a team of 22 students from RMIT, Macquarie University and Southern Cross University. Overall there were 437 patient encounters, with all students working amazingly hard in difficult circumstances. As always the October long weekend put on some extremely hot temperatures with Sunday being a roasting 37 degrees.

A highlight of the weekend was the Auckland Warriors NRL player Jonathan Wright coming in a number of times for treatment. There was also a number of other Indigenous NRL players attending, as well as some very talented younger players. Community members also made use of the opportunity to obtain treatment with Elders and other members coming from remote communities such as Brewarrina. Our service provides our Indigenous brothers and sisters an opportunity to access much needed musculo-skeletal care.

As usual a good time was had by all, exhausted, hot and weary students returned to study with a feeling that what they were learning was all worth it. These opportunities are great for them as they see patients that they would normally not have the opportunity to see in a student clinic. For example, we see a large number of acute injuries.

I was hoping for a Newcastle win so that we can return to Raymond Terrace for next year’s knockout but in an exciting final game the Redfern All blacks came from behind in the second half to beat Newcastle All blacks in an extra time win.

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HoHA has around 500 volunteer therapists, clinic managers, reception staff, management, academic advisors and good-hearted helpers. Our volunteers donate their time to deliver around 10,000 complementary health treatments per year. Please contact us and we are happy to work with your busy schedule.

We also have 8 volunteer community clinics in Australia and 2 international treatment and training programs. Around 30,000 people are reached per year, delivering around 10,000 treatments through the collective efforts of up to 500 HoHA volunteers. HoHA is a not-for-profit organisation funded by the community.